Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) and House Appropriations Commitee Chair Ann Bollin (R-Brighton). Feb. 5, 2025 | Photo by Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance
After months of infighting and barbs thrown at the opposite respective chambers of the Michigan Legislature, the state’s House of Representatives appears poised to release the rest of its budget plan as soon as next week.
The announcement came Tuesday from state Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton), chair of the House Appropriations Committee, who said the lower chamber’s plan would be “responsible” and embrace national Republican talking points like eliminating waste and reallocating resources – likely through cuts that legislative Democrats would outright oppose.
“As we wrap up our review of the state’s finances, one thing has become clear: Michigan taxpayers deserve better than the wasteful habits that have taken root in state government,” Bollin said in a statement. “Departments are sitting on slush funds created by phantom jobs that never get filled, and they’re rolling over hundreds of millions of dollars in work projects year after year. These dollars were meant to serve the people, not to be stashed away by bureaucrats. We’re putting a stop to that.”
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The budget negotiations this year hit a brick wall due to inaction from the House on its full budget, releasing and passing only a K-12 and higher education funding plan, and the Senate’s unwillingness to release a fully fleshed out road funding plan, although the Senate did pass a full government budget, including education funding, in May.
Congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump also did the Michigan Legislature no favors when they passed and Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which will likely blow a $1 billion hole in the state’s budget.
Lawmakers had a July 1 deadline to get their respective – and complete – plans passed and moved to the negotiating table with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, but the chambers blew past that deadline and have been pointing fingers on which chamber was to blame.
Some of the House’s logic on waiting was to see what fallout the federal budget might create for Michgian, although members of the Democratic-led Senate said their plan accounted for the steep cuts that were likely under Trump this year.
The war of words between the two chambers worsened last week without any real sign of movement on the full House budget, but Bollin on Tuesday signaled that the first phase of the process may conclude soon.
Bollin noted the House Republican belief that Senate Democrats rushed their budget, coming up with a plan to spend $86 billion, which Bollin claimed was far more than the state can afford without raising taxes. The forthcoming House budget, Bollin said, took months to “carefully review every line of the budget.”
“We did the hard work of going through this budget line by line,” Bollin said. “That extra time allowed us to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and to make smarter investments in the things that matter most to people across Michigan.”
Bollin said the House plan prioritizes $3.1 billion annually to repair the local roads in the worst condition, while also creating the Public Safety and Violence Prevention Trust Fund to send state dollars directly to local communities for public safety programs.
“It ends unfair taxes on tips, overtime pay, and retirement income,” she added. “We’re boosting education funding with more flexibility so schools can shrink class sizes, strengthen mental health services, and invest in the programs their kids need most. And we are making the necessary adjustments to ensure Medicaid remains available for every qualified Michigan resident who needs it.”
Bollin said the House’s approach would make a difference to tax payers in the long run.
“Every dollar we cut from bureaucracy and waste is a dollar we can put toward the real priorities of Michigan families,” she said. “You’re going to see a budget that respects taxpayers and focuses on fixing roads, keeping our communities safe, making life more affordable, and ensuring every child has the opportunity to succeed.”
In response to Bollin’s announcement, Tracy Wimmer, spokesperson for the House Democratic Caucus, said, “we would have loved to have read this in June.”
Messages seeking comment from Senate Democrats were not immediately returned.
The mention of the roads plan was a signal that the House may be ready to move on with its budget plan without seeing the Senate’s roads plan first, as the upper chamber has yet to release its approach to funding roads in the coming fiscal year and beyond. Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks said last week that the Senate needed to see the House’s full budget before it could start nailing down a funding fix to the looming road repair cliff. The House moving its plan forward could mean the Senate’s roads plan might be imminent, as well.
Meanwhile, Whitmer has been playing harder ball to get both sides to an agreement on roads, noting in a recent press conference that no state budget plan was complete without funding for roads.
On Tuesday, the governor’s office released the results of a constituent survey on roads, which showed residents wanted a comprehensive and bipartisan plan. The continued kicks in the rear from the executive office could also help break the gridlock.
“A majority of Michiganders want safe, reliable roads so they can go to work, drop their kids off at school, and run errands without blowing a tire or cracking an axle,” Whitmer said in a statement. “While people acknowledged the progress we’ve made over the last five years, they also shared hundreds of stories about how much poor road conditions cost them and how much safer they would feel if we kept our foot on the accelerator. We’ve fixed a lot of major roads since I took office, but our work is not over.”
Among several questions, the one geared toward the Legislature’s role in moving a roads plan forward saw 72% of participants say a bipartisan deal was very important to them, while 17% said it was somewhat important and another 3% saying it was not important at all.
Whitmer’s office did not immediately respond to questions from Michigan Advance on the number of residents polled in the governor’s survey and in what areas of the state residents were polled.
In another new poll conducted by Glengariff Group, Michigan residents of all political strips were frustrated that the Legislature failed to pass and complete a negotiated schools budget by the July 1 deadline.
Of the participants in the Glengariff poll, 83% said they support the Legislature’s self-imposed July 1 statutory deadline and 89% said that a budget must be completed now before school starts after Labor Day. Another 74% of participants said voters would choose to have public school funding fleshed out before a roads funding plan, and 89% of participants ranked school funding as their top priority for the Legislature.
While the blame game continues, nearly two-thirds of participants in the Glengariff poll said they would blame everyone – the House, the Senate and the governor – if the crisis veers into a government shutdown.
A total of 600 likely Michigan voters were polled by Glengariff on behalf of The K-12 Alliance of Michigan, with a relatively equal number of Democrats and Republicans but fewer independent voters. The poll had a 4% margin of error with 95% confidence level.
Robert McCann, the alliance’s executive director, said the voters’ message to the Legislature was clear.
“Do your job and pass a school budget immediately that puts every single dollar where it belongs – investing in our K-12 classrooms and kids,” McCann said in a statement. “This stalemate exists because too many in Lansing still view the School Aid Fund as a piggy bank to raid for other projects. Voters could not disagree more. Public school funding must be treated as the top priority inside the Capitol – just as it clearly is for families across Michigan. Anything less ignores the clear will of Michigan voters.”
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